Two novel artificial receptors, one containing phenolic hydroxyl group and diamide (1), the other only containing diamide (2), were designed and synthesized. The binding ability evaluated by UV-vis and fluorescence titration experiments in dry DMSO revealed that compound 1 could selectively recognize AcO -. In particular, the binding ability can also be detected in the DMSO/H 2 O solution by UV-vis. The interference experiment result showed that the binding ability was not influenced by the existence of other anions. In contrast, there were no detectable interaction between receptor 2 and anions. The further insights to the nature of interaction between receptor 1 and AcO -were investigated by 1 H NMR titration experiments and theoretical investigation, which demonstrated receptor 1 complexed AcO -through the synergistic hydrogen bonding interaction of OH and NH.